Does man have any plans to emigrate to the moon in the future?

Moving to the moon is not a dream. European scientists say it is expected that a base will be established within 20 years.

Beijing, Sept. 4 (Xinhua)-After completing its space mission, the European satellite SMART- 1 crashed into the moon at noon yesterday. According to the report of Taiwan Province United Daily News, it is estimated that human beings will set up a base on the moon for astronauts to live in within 20 years.

Yin Fu, a scientist of the European Space Agency's SMART- 1 mission plan, made the above prediction. He said that the trip of the SMART- 1 spacecraft to the moon rekindled scientists' interest in moon research.

In 2003, the European Space Agency launched SMART- 1. Its mission is not only to find water and detect geological components, but also to find suitable landing sites for future missions to the moon. In the past 18 months, SMART- 1 has been sending back data and images, including X-ray maps. Based on these data, scientists have learned more about the moon.

SMART- 1 discovered the peak of the moon's north pole that is always in sunshine, and also searched for the depression that is always in darkness. In the future mission of human landing on the moon, solar energy stations can be built on sunny peaks, and the forever dark depressions are the most likely places to have water.

There are many breakthroughs in the technology of SMART- 1, including that the weight of the X-ray machine is only 5 kg, which is only one tenth of that of the previous similar equipment, and it uses an ultra-efficient solar ion engine. Before the impact, SMART- 1 had flown around the moon more than 2,000 times, using only 60 liters of "fuel".

British scientists pointed out that Japan, China, India and the United States will send probes to the moon in the next few years, and it is expected that astronauts will be sent to the moon again in 2020.

In the past, NASA had six Apollo missions to the moon, and the former Soviet Union had three unmanned missions to the moon, but only a small part of the moon was explored. In recent years, scientists have finally realized that there are more places worth exploring on the moon.